Research Versus Over Preparation
Launch library · evergreen read
There is a point past which further research stops sharpening an interviewer's questions and starts narrowing them instead, locking in assumptions before the subject has had a chance to speak for themselves and correct or complicate the picture that research alone produced. That narrowing effect is easy to miss from the inside, which is exactly what makes it worth watching for.
Recognising that point takes self awareness. A useful check is whether continued research is still producing genuinely new questions, or whether it has started merely confirming a conclusion already reached, which is usually a sign that the preparation phase has run its course. That check is worth running honestly and often throughout the whole preparation phase.
The goal of research is to walk into the room informed enough to ask well, not so certain of the answers that genuine surprise becomes impossible. Curiosity, not certainty, should be the last thing preparation leaves an interviewer holding. Genuine surprise, kept possible right up until the sitting itself, is usually the clearest sign that preparation has stayed in bounds.